State Senator Says Latest Murder of West Bank Family ‘Yet Another Sad Episode for the Region’
TRENTON – Senator Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, issued the following statement regarding news reports of escalating violence in Israel’s West Bank, including the murder last week of Ruth and Udi Fogel, aged 35 and 36, and their three children, boys Yoav, 11, and Elad, three, and three-month-old baby girl Hadas:
“As someone who takes great pride in her Jewish heritage, my heart grieves for the continued and escalating violence in the West Bank. While the international community is shocked by the murder of an entire family in the Itamar settlement, including a three-month-old baby girl, by knife-wielding Palestinian terrorists, it’s unfortunately yet another sad episode in the history of this region.
“Whatever your beliefs about the legitimacy of Israel’s statehood, attacks like the one on the Fogel family last week should be denounced in the strongest language possible. The deaths of innocents, caught in the cross-fire of a culture war in the West Bank, cannot and should not be tolerated by anyone of good conscience on either side of the dispute.
“It’s my fervent prayer that justice be done, and that peaceful coexistence can be achieved in Israel and throughout the world wherever violence, uncertainty and cruelty towards our fellow people has become the tragic norm. While the Fogels are not the first casualties in this dispute, I hope and I pray that the shock and grief over their murder is enough to make people begin to re-evaluate their own stubborn and unyielding prejudices, and commit themselves to a more peaceful tomorrow for Israel and the world as a whole.”